Homemade Sausage Making

Thank you BobK, very interesting pics.
I'm happy to see he made it a mobile unit with the steering wheel, wonder how fast he can get that baby up too. LOL

I know what the wheel is for.

Yesterday I smoked a few "wędzonki": Cold smoked pork loins (Kasseler style), Polędwica Sopocka (Polish smoked and poached pork loin), and a couple of garlic and rosemary hams. The smaller ham was finished by poaching and will be used for sandwiches. The larger ham was smoked for 3 hours at 58C (136F) and will be cooked by roasting for the dinner table.

Those look fantastic. Were the pork loins whole Cryo vacd or from a butcher? Nice looking loins.

They were vacced from Superstore. A couple of weeks ago I wandered into the store to buy some vegetables (my wife insists we eat them), and noticed that they had whole loins at $1.47 lbs. I haven't seen loins for 2 bucks now for a while, and with the price of pork these days, it was an absolute steal. I bought 6 of them, ranging 13-14 lbs each.

That is a great price. I'm hoping to get a barn clean out subject hog (bad foot, little smaller than market wt, etc) in the next couple weeks from the plant my friend works at now. They go for $200 and are 75-80kg. Current live prive for a market weight hog went up from $170 to $330! Grab it up when you find a deal like that!

Christmas is coming so I have prepared some of traditional polish wedzonki. A few pork loin pieces, two pork butt pieces, 3 hams (like separate muscles), and polish style bacon (two pork bellies used). Brined by equilibrium method for 2.5 weeks, smoked and then poached (by sous vide method).
Before smoking After smoking Sous vide poaching

Wow that all looks outstanding!

Stefan, as usual - looks awesome! I have a questions for you: when you are saying "smoked and then poached" - do you use cold cold smoke or hot smoke? And how long?

bolepa wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 22, 2022 06:08

do you use cold cold smoke or hot smoke? And how long?

usually temp in smokehouse is around 120-140 F (50-60 *C). I'm not smoking using timer - just for color - sometimes it is 4 hours or 5.5 hours. Sometimes it is just 3.5 hours.

Beautiful work Stefan! At what temp do you sous vide and for how long?

Hi Chris. I started all pieces at same time - 60*C (140F).
after 5 hours - removed all pork loins (poledwica) then raised temp. to 62*C (144F)
After 8 hours removed pork hams (szynki), pork butt (balerony) - so total time -5 hours in 60*C plus 8 hours in 62*C
then raised temperature to 65*C (150F) and after 4 hours removed pork bellies (boczki).

Being a wood cooker by nature, curious what wood was used?

Bentley Meredith wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 28, 2022 23:24

Being a wood cooker by nature, curious what wood was used?

for preheating smoker and first step of smoking (drying pieces of meat) I used hickory wood, for main smoking step - apple and cherry wood.

Long time i didn't show my 'wedzonki" so it doesn't mean that I do nothing. My weekend play with them.
Around two weeks ago i put some meat to cure. equilibrium curing under vacuum - pork loins, hams, pork bellies - 18 g/kg of meat. Keep in mind that my salt mix contain 100 grams Cure #1 and 900 grams of sea salt.(that mix is exactly like polish "peklosol"). Usually im adding also some herbs and spices mix. Every piece of meat - excluding pork bellies- is also injected with "peklosol"/water solution. 8-10% solution im using. here are some pictures - pork loin., and hams My netting system - My friends meats and mine - ready to "rock and roll" in "Cadillac" smoker. After smoking - Meats ready to poaching ( vacuum packed) - Sous vide poaching started - Results tomorrow.